U.S.
slips in WEF's competitiveness rankings By Aileen Wang and
Alan Wheatley; Editing by Ken Wills | Thu Sep 9, 5:22 am ET
BEIJING (Reuters) – Switzerland remains the world's
most competitive economy, while the United States has fallen
from second to fourth after losing the top spot last year,
according to the World Economic Forum's annual rankings
issued on Thursday.
Sweden, in second spot, and Singapore in third leapfrogged
the United States in the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report
2010/2011.
Last year the Asian city-state ranked third and Sweden
fourth. There were no newcomers in the WEF's top 10, although
Germany climbed to fifth from seventh.
The WEF said America slipped in the ranking due to a build-up
in U.S. macroeconomic imbalances, a weakening of the country's
public and private institutions and concerns about the state
of its financial markets.
"There are weaknesses in some areas in particular,
which we have discussed for some time before, and they deepened
somewhat since last year," Jennifer Blanke, the lead
economist of the WEF's Center for Global Competitiveness
and Performance, told a news conference to release the report.
The report said a lack of macroeconomic stability continues
to be America's greatest area of weakness, with repeated
fiscal deficits leading to burgeoning public indebtedness.
It also said that U.S. business leaders show less trust
in politicians and the government's ability to maintain
an arm's-length relationship with the private sector.
The WEF bases its assessment on a dozen drivers of competitiveness,
including institutions, infrastructure, health and education,
market size and the macroeconomic environment.
The report also factors in a survey among business leaders,
assessing the government's efficiency and transparency.
Switzerland retained first place thanks to its high capacity
for innovation and sophisticated business culture.
Nordic countries continued to do well in the WEF's league
table, with Finland and Denmark joining Sweden in the top
10.
China moved up two places to 27th and was the most competitive
of the major emerging economies.
"China continues to show great strength, not in terms
of the size of the economy but in terms of the quality of
the economy," said Robert Greenhill, managing director
and chief business officer of the WEF.
He attributed China's climb up the rankings to its large
market size, strong macro-economic management and improved
financial markets.
"China is moving up the value chain of global competitiveness
and in addition it has made great progress in business sophistication
and innovation," he added.
The Geneva-based group released the report ahead of a meeting
next week in the port city of Tianjin near Beijing.